that though its author was indisputably more | no notices worth naming-a bare intimation of a gentleman, a scholar, and a man of taste of the deaths of Waller, Cowley, and Daventhan our actuary, it is far inferior both in in- ant, and a few words of Dryden-Milton, we terest, curiosity, and substantial instruction, think, not once mentioned. There is more to that which we are now considering. The of the natural philosophers of Gresham Coltwo authors, however, we are happy to find, lege, but not much that is valuable-some were great friends; and no name is mentioned curious calculations and speculations about in the latter part of the Diary with more uni-money and coinages-and this odd but au form respect and affection than that of Evelyn thentic notice of Sir W. Petty's intended will. though it is very edifying to see how the Sir William Petty did tell me that in good shrewd, practical sagacity of the man of busi-earnest he hath in his will left some parts of his ness, revenges itself on the assumed superiority of the philosopher and man of letters. In this respect we think there is a fine keeping of character in the sincerity of the following passage—

estate to him that could invent such and such things. As among others, that could discover truly the way of milk coming into the breasts of a woman! and he that could invent proper characters to express to another the mixture of relishes and tastes. And says, that to him that invents gold, he gives nothing for the philosopher's stone; for (says he) they that find out that, will be able to pay themthan to go to a lecture; for here my executors, that selves. But, says he, by this means it is better must part with this, will be sure to be well convinced of the invention before they do part with their money."

"By water to Deptford, and there made a visit to Mr. Evelyn, who, among other things, showed me most excellent painting in little; in distemper, Indian incke, water colours: graveing; and above all, the whole mezzo-tinto, and the manner of it, which is very pretty, and good things done with it. He read to me very much also of his discourse, he hath been many years and now is about, about Gardenage; which is a most noble and pleasantly piece. He read me part of a play or two of his own making-very good, but not as he conceits them, I think, to be. He showed me his Hortus Hyemalis; leaves laid up in a book of several plants kept dry, which preserve colour, however, and look very finely, better than an herball. In fine a most excellent person he is, and must be allowed a little for a little conceitedness; but he may well be so, being a man so much above others. He read me, though with too much gusto, some little poems of his own that were not transcendant; yet one or two very pretty epigrams; among others, of a lady looking in at a grate, and being pecked at by an eagle that was there."

And a little after he chuckles not a little over his learned friend's failure, in a speculation about making bricks-concluding very sagely, "so that I see the most ingenious men may sometimes be mistaken!"

The Appendix, which seems very judiciousselected, contains some valuable fragments of historical information: but we have not now left ourselves room for any account of them; and are tempted to give all we can yet spare to a few extracts from a very curious corres pondence between Mr. Pepys and Lord Reay and Lord Tarbut in 1699, on the subject of the Second Sight among our Highlanders. Lord Reay seems to have been a firm believer in this gift or faculty-but Lord Tarbut had been a decided sceptic, and was only con verted by the proofs of its reality, which oc curred to himself while in the Highlands, in the year 1652 and afterwards. Some of the stories he tells are not a little remarkable. For example, he says, that one night when one of his Celtic attendants was entering a house where they had proposed to sleep, he suddenly started back with a scream, and fell down in an agony.

shortly a dead coffin would be carried out of it, for many were carrying it when he was heard cry! I neglecting his words and staying there, he said to others of the servants he was very sorry for it, and that what he saw would surely come to pass: and though no sick person was then there, yet the landlord, a healthy Highlander, died of an apoplectic fit before I left the house."

We meet with the names of many distinguished men in these pages, and some characteristic anecdotes,—but few bold characters. "I asked what the matter was, for he seemed to He has a remarkable interview with Claren- me to be very much frighted: he told me very seridon-in which the cautious and artful de-ously that I should not lodge in that house, because meanour of that veteran politician is finely displayed, though on a very trivial occasion. The Navy Board had marked some trees for cutting in Clarendon Park without his leave at which he had expressed great indignation; and our author went, in a prodigious fright, to pacify him. He found him busy hearing causes in his chambers, and was obliged to wait. After all done, he himself called, Come, Mr. Pepys, you and I will take a turn in the garden.' So he was led down stairs, having the goute, and there walked with me, I think above an hour, talking most friendly, but cunningly!-He told me he would not direct me in any thing, that it might not be said that the Lord Chancellor did labour to abuse the King; or (as I offered) direct the suspending the report of the purveyors: but I see what he means, and will make it my work to do him service in it. But Lord! to see how we poor wretches dare not do the King good service, for fear of the greatness of these men!"

There is no literary intelligence of any value to be gained from this work. Play collectors will probably find the names of many lost pieces- but of our classical authors there are

Another occurred in 1653, when, in a very rugged part of the country, he fell in with a man who was staring into the air with marks of great agitation. Upon asking what it was that disturbed him, he answered,

"I see a troop of Englishmen leading their horses down that hill-and some of them are already in the plain, eating the barley which is growing in the field near to the hill.' This was on the 4th of May (for I noted the day), and it was four or five days before any barley was sown in the field he spoke of. Alexander Monro asked him how he knew they were Englishmen: he answered, because they were leading horses, and had on hats and boots, which took little notice of the whole story as other than a foolish vision, but wished that an English party vere there, we being then at war with them, and the

he knew no Scotchmen would have on there

We

place almost inaccessible for horsemen. But the he had been seen with a dagger run into his beginning of August thereafter, the Earl of Middle-breast-and though nothing ever happened to ton, then lieutenant for the King in the Highlands, him, one of his servants, to whom he had having occasion to march a party of his towards the South Islands, sent his foot through a place called given the doublet which he wore at the time Inverlacwell, and the forepart, which was first down of this intimation, was stabbed through it, in the hill, did fall to eating the barley which was on the very place where the dagger had been the little plain under it.' Lord Reay adds the following additional instance, of this glancing, as it were, of the prophecy on the outer garment.

Another of his lordship's experiences was as follows. In January 1682, he was sitting with two friends in a house in Ross-shire, when a man from the islands

"Desired me to rise from that chair, for it was an unlucky one. I asked 'Why?' He answered, Because there was a dead man in the chair next to it. Well,' said I, if it be but in the next, I may safely sit here: but what is the likeness of the man?' He said he was a tall man with a long grey coat, booted, and one of his legs hanging over the chair, and his head hanging down to the other side, and his arm backward, as it were broken. There were then some English troops quartered near the place, and there being at that time a great frost after a thaw, the country was wholly covered over with ice. Four or five Englishmen riding by this house, not two hours after the vision, where we were sitting by the fire, we heard a great noise, which proved to be these troopers, with the help of other servants, carrying in one of their number who had got a very mischievous fall and had his arm broke; and falling frequently into swooning fits, they brought him to the hall, and set him in the very chair and in the very posture which the seer had proposed: but the man did not die, though he revived with great difficulty."

seen.

"John Macky, of Dilril, having put on a new suit of clothes, was told by a seer that he did see the gallows upon his coat, which he never noticed; but some time after gave his coat to his servant, William Forbess, to whose honesty there could bo nothing said at that time; but he was shortly after hanged for theft, with the same cont about him: my informer being an eye-witness of his execution, and one who had heard what the seer said before."

His lordship also mentions, that these visions were seen by blind people, as well as those who had sight, and adds, that there was a blind woman in his time who had the faculty in great perfection; and foretold many things that afterwards happened, as hundreds of living witnesses could attest. We have no time now to speculate on these singular legends-but, as curious mementos of the lubri city of human testimony, we think it right they should be once more brought into notice.

And now we have done with Mr. Pepys. There is trash enough no doubt in his journal, -trifling facts, and silly observations in abundance. But we can scarcely say that we wish it a page shorter; and are of opinion, that there is very little of it which does not help us to understand the character of his times, and his contemporaries, better than we should ever have done without it; and make us feel more assured that we comprehend the great historical events of the age, and the people who bore a part in them. Independent of instruction altogether too, there is no denying, that it is very entertaining thus to be transported into the very heart of a time so long gone by; and to be admitted into the domestic intimacy, as well as the public councils, of a man of great activity and circulation in the reign of Charles II. Read

These instances are chiefly remarkable as being given upon the personal knowledge of an individual of great judgment, acuteness, and firmness of character. The following is from a still higher quarter; since the reporter was not even a Scotchman, and indeed no less a person than Lord Clarendon. In a letter to Mr. Pepys in 1701, he informs him, that, in 1661, upon a Scottish gentleman being in his presence introduced to Lady Cornbury, he was observed to gaze upon her with a singular expression of melancholy; and upon one of the company asking the reason, he replied, "I see her in blood!" She was at that time in perfect health, and remained so for near a month, when she fell ill of small-pox: And "Upon the ninth day after the small-pox ap.ing this book, in short, seems to us to be quite peared, in the morning, she bled at the nose, which quickly stopt; but in the afternoon the blood burst out again with great violence at her nose and mouth, and about eleven of the clock that night she dyed, almost weltering in her blood!"

There is a great number of similar stories, reported on the most imposing testimonythough, in some instances, the seer, we must say, is somewhat put to it to support his credit, and make out the accomplishment of his vision. One chieftain, for instance, had long been seen by the gifted, with an arrow sticking in his thigh; from which they all inferred, that he was either to die or to suffer greatly, from a wound in that place. To their surprise, however, he died of some other infliction, and the seers were getting out of reputation; when luckily a fray arose at the funeral, and an arrow was shot fairly through the thigh of the dead man, in the very spot where the vision had shown it! On another occasion, Lord Reay's grandfather was told that

as good as living with Mr. Samuel Pepys in his proper person, and though the court scandal may be detailed with more grace and vivacity in the Memoires de Grammont, we have no doubt but even this part of his multifarious subject is treated with far greater fidelity and fairness in the work before uswhile it gives us more clear and undistorted glimpses into the true English life of the times-for the court was substantially foreign than all the other memorials of them put together, that have come down to our own.

The book is rather too dear and magnifi cent. But the editor's task we think excellently performed. The ample text is not incumbered with ostentatious commentaries. But very brief and useful notices are supplied of almost all the individuals who are mentioned; and an admirable and very minute index is subjoined, which methodises the im mense miscellany-and places the vast chaos at our disposal.

(July, 1808.)

History of the early Part of the Reign of James the Second; with an Introductory Chapter By the Right Honourable CHARLES JAMES FOX. To which is added an Appendix. 4to pp. 340. Miller, London: 1808.

suaded, they would have acted with the same spirit;-nay, in consequence of the more general diffusion of education and intelli. gence, we believe they would have been still more zealous and more unanimous in the cause of liberty. But we have of late been exposed to the operation of various causes, which have tended to lull our vigilance, and relax our exertions; and which threaten, unless powerfully counteracted, to bring on, gradually, such a general indifference and forgetfulness of the interests of freedom, as to prepare the people for any tolerably mild form of servitude which their future rulers may be tempted to impose upon them.

The first, and the principal of these causes, however paradoxical it may seem, is the ac tual excellence of our laws, and the supposed inviolability of the constitution. The second is, the great increase of luxury, and the tremendous patronage of the government. The last is, the impression made and maintained by the events of the French Revolution. We shall say but a word upon each of these prolific themes of speculation.

all possible palliations for the conduct of the | from their ancestors in the days of the Revolu individual delinquent, and never attempts to tion. In the same circumstances, we are per shut him out from the benefit of those natural sympathies of which the bad as well as the good are occasionally the objects, from their fortune or situation. He has given a new character, we think, to history, by this soft and condescending concern for the feelings of individuals; and not only left a splendid record of the gentleness and affectionate simplicity of his own dispositions, but set an example by which we hope that men of genius may be taught hereafter to render their instructions more engaging and impressive. Nothing, we are persuaded, can be more gratifying to his friends, than the impression of his character which this work will carry down to posterity; nor is it a matter of indifference to the country, that its most illustrious statesman should be yet more distinguished for the amiableness of his private affections. This softness of feeling is the first remarkable thing in the work before us. The second is perhaps of more general importance. It is, that it contains the only appeal to the old principles of English constitutional freedom, and the only expression of those firm and temperate sentiments of independence, which Because our ancestors stipulated wisely for are the peculiar produce, and natural protec- the public at the Revolution, it seemed to tion of our mixed government, which we recol- have become a common opinion, that nothing lect to have met with for very many years. was left to their posterity but to pursue their The tone of the work, in this respect, recalls private interest. The machine of Govern us to feelings which seem of late to have ment was then completed and set agoingslumbered in the country which they used to and it will go on without their interference. inspire. In our indolent reliance upon the Nobody talks now of the divine right, or the imperishable virtue of our constitution, and dispensing power of kings, or ventures to proin our busy pursuit of wealth, we appeared to pose to govern without Parliaments, or to be forgetting our higher vocation of free citi- levy taxes without their authority;-therezens; and, in our dread of revolution or foreign fore, our liberties are secure;-and it is only invasion, to have lost sight of those intestine factious or ambitious people that affect any dangers to which our liberties are always jealousy of the executive. Things go on very more immediately exposed. The history of smoothly as they are; and it can never be the Revolution of 1688, and of the times im- the interest of any party in power, to attempt mediately preceding, was eminently calculated any thing very oppressive or injurious to the to revive those feelings, and restore those public. By such reasonings, men excuse their impressions, which so many causes had in abandonment of all concern for the commuour days conspired to obliterate; and, in the nity, and find, in the very excellence of the hands of Mr. Fox, could scarcely have failed constitution, an apology for exposing it to corto produce a very powerful effect. On this ruption. It is obvious, however, that liberty, account, it must be matter of the deepest re-like love, is as hard to keep as to win; and gret that he was not permitted to finish, or indeed to do more than begin, that inspiring narrative. Even in the little which he has done, however, we discover the spirit of the master: Even in the broken prelude which he has here sounded, the true notes are struck with such force and distinctness, and are in themselves so much in unison with the natural chords of every British heart, that we think no slight vibration will be excited throughout the country; and would willingly lend our assistance to propagate it into every part of the empire. In order to explain more fully the reasons for which we set so high a value upon the work before us on this particular account, we must be allowed to enlarge a little upon the evil which we think it calculated to

correct.

We do not think the present generation of our countrymen substantially degenerated

that the exertions by which it was originally gained will be worse than fruitless, if they be not followed up by the assiduities by which alone it can be preserved. Wherever there is power, we may be sure that there is, or will be, a disposition to increase it; and if there be not a constant spirit of jealousy and of resistance on the part of the people, every monarchy will gradually harden into a des potism. It will not, indeed, wantonly provoke or alarm, by seeking again to occupy those very positions from which it had once been dislodged; but it will extend itself in other quarters, and march on silently, under the colours of a venal popularity.

This indolent reliance on the sufficiency of the constitution for its own preservation, af. fords great facilities, no doubt, to those who may be tempted to project its destruction; but the efficient means are to be found chiefly